What is that free game engine that can do 3D renders too?
TSasha Smith
Posts: 27,253
in The Commons
What was the name of the free game engine that can do 3D renders too? Just curious and wondering if it is really free. Also are there any good YouTube tutorials on bringing Daz content into it? and also using it? Right now I am an individual who has limited to no budget for new software.
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Comments
there are lots and lots
Unreal Engine and Unity tend to be the most popular
but Google will show you countless ones
Unreal is a good choice, and has a frontend that will let you get your feet wet..
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/twinmotion
UE4 (aka Epic aka Unreal Engine) and Unity.
Wonder if there is a source of real royalty free models that do not have confusing licensing. That is if I want to make games and able to do it at an okay level. Is that what the extended licensing for? Do I have to buy it before making the game or before selling or redistribution of game?
thank you for all the answers.
i'm a little confuse about what you want, you want just "render" static images in game engines? if yes then you can "render for free" in most of the game engines normally they licenses are about "games" or videos" if i'm not wrong just render some static images inside unreal or unity you don't have to "pay" for it.(well not too sure since now unreal have the archv and virtual building to sell too then i don't know exactly the terms you need to look more info for that).
a totally free game engine can be the godot 3.0 he is full free of any royalties but i don't know if his render is good.
Now if you want to make "games" or cinematics or cgis then it's another history then you must pay the "license" which for exemple in unreal it's 10% of all your earns in a year quarter(4 months period, like from january to april, if you earn $10000 or more during that time you must pay 10% of that value to epic, you must have a way to track it, for exemple selling stuffs inside steam it show you how much per month you gain for selling your game then each 4 months you must take 10% of total you gain during that time and pay to epic.
i don't know how is the unity payment process,
and again if you want a total free game engine then godot is for you, have few mores but honestly i don't recall the name of the others.
another thing in unreal if you sell your game "inside the epic market then you don't have to pay for the "10%" license, you only have to pay the epic 12 or is 8% fee for the market usage, now selling epic stuffs outside epic market then you have to pay the epic 10%+ plus the "local market" fee, for exemple for steam it's 20 or 30% don't recall now then you have to pay 10+20 or 30= to 30 or 40% of the earn for each selling.
the licenicing on Unreal is simple. It's free to a point.
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/faq
but I quote -
"
We offer a choice of licensing terms depending on your use of Unreal Engine.
"
so for rendering and animation for personal use it's free.
also the Epic tool set is expanding, theres
Unreal Engine
Twinmotion (free at this time)
Mixer 2020 - Texture creation and 3D Painting
Bridge - asset control
all free....
If you make enough money making a video game then you will have to hire a tax accountant anyway to make sure you aren't inadvertantly breaking some tax laws. So confusion doesn't factor into it unless you make enough money to become liable for government taxes anyway at which time you should sensibly hire a reputable tax accountant. If you were competant at tax law you wouldn't be trying to make money making apps or games.
Unity has no rotalties but once you make enough money ($100K USD last I heard) you have to buy Unity Pro, which is very expensive but not to a business earning over $100K a year. Chances of any indy hobbyist making $100K are very small. Why, you would have had a better chance winning the Texas State Lottery jackpot back in 1990s when there was only 16,000,000 possible winning combinations for the winning number.
The other, UE4, is owned by 10Cent and I think they charge 5% royalties (I see another user say they raised to to 10% now) from the get go once your app earns some relatively small amount, less than or at $10000 USD I think it was.
At any rate there is little need to worry in either case as making a living from independently writing apps or video games is almost always a bust situation as you are lucky to make $100 let alone $10000. If you make $10000 (with no advertising bought) on any game or app you should probably keep trying. If you've bought advertising and only make $10000 that's a bust usually. On the small chance you boom, you hire the appropriate professional tax accountant firm that have their own tax lawyers to do your required paperwork.
That doesn't mean making a living from letting yourself be independenty hired on a freelance basis to write other people's apps / games but then you open yourself up to the world of having to be a debt collector from non-paying clients, finding new clients, and a lot of hard work for little reward, often not even what you'd earn working as permanent staff as a regular developer at a regular business. Plus you have to compete with really cheap labor from countries with very low cost of living like India. Still want to? Don't forget to fill out all the local, state, and federal tax forms for your taxes, retirement, and healthcare and hold back enough earnings to pay those things. That's a lot to learn that is also often changing and you've not even written one line of code yet! Then, in some very special locations, usually big cities in industrial nations, you have to pay fees to the government for having a business as a freelance professional developing software just like lawyers, doctors, electricians, plumbers, and so on have to do. You'll have to research that too and if it applies for your locality.
So I could see making apps /games for the fun of it & if you get lucky great, chances are you won't have to worry about taxes, royalties, or licensing terms anyway so you may as well go for it if you like it enough; but really you should work as regular staff for a regular business if you need to earn a living.
I just want to try as a hobbyist who can earn a little extra cash. I am expecting (and hoping) I do not make more than ten thousand a year.
I don't think there is any danger of that
"The other, UE4, is owned by 10Cent and I think they charge 5% royalties from the get go once your app earns some relatively small amount, less than $10000 USD I think it was."
erm I posted the correct info above. and it's owned by Epic (Tencent have a stake in Epic but they don't own it. same as they have stakes in other games companies)